A New Perspective

The reading of Geek Love was unlike many of the novels I had ever read before in many different ways. For one, the novel had a very unique title that leads many in our class to assume a different story line. From what I have heard in class discussions, many people, including myself, thought that the novel would be about a couple geeky teenagers falling in love. If you read the story, you would very well know that this is not the case. Once you get past the cover on the novel, you open the book and read through the first couple chapters to soon notice that the novel also proposes a unique narration standpoint. Olympia, one of the main characters in the story, is the narrator that constantly switches from past to more concurrent events. She tells her own story and, as the reader, you can’t help but wonder if she’s telling the story with her own spin. Along with a misleading title and a unique narration scheme, the novel also proposes what I think to be a crooked set of morals and events. Some of the events that take place during the plot of the novel are very questionable, and I have actually spent some time discussing specifics in my second blog post “Sinful Actions?” In being unlike most of the novels I have ever read, it’s also a novel that reconstructed the meaning of “monstrosity” for me. Beforehand I had considered the meaning of monstrosity to be someone or something with foul physical attributes. After reading Geek Love, I have formed a new meaning for the word. Instead of a monster being someone or something with a foul physical appearance, it/they have to also have the personality to back the term. For example, Olympia has a foul physical appearance, and before my reading of this novel would have been considered a monster. After reading Geek Love, Olympia took on a new persona. Instead of being a monster, I learned that Olympia has gentle and good intentions for the ones around her. Her personality was representative of caring for the ones around her. Because of the addition of a personality trait into my definition of monstrosity, I have a new view on what a monster character really is. A character in the novel that I considered a monster before and after the reading of this novel was Arty. Arty has foul physical appearance, and on top of that, has a foul personality. He always did things for the good of himself. He used and manipulated his family and followers for the good of Arty, and couldn’t have cared less about the people surrounding him. This newly created definition has changed the way I see “monsters” in the novels we have read throughout this entire semester. It’s interesting how one novel can change ones perspective and bring new concepts to light, even after you’ve been reading for years and years on end. It’s shows that no matter what your age, you can still pick up on new information and new insights to things we haven’t thought about in our lifetime. 

Dexter & Olympia

          Geek Love is truly an interesting novel in which you run into several very unique personalities, ethics, and morals with in each of the characters. As we approach the end of Geek Love, a novel written by Katherine Dunn, we can reflect and compare the novel to other media sources such as other novels, movies, TV shows, short stories, and possibly newspaper articles. As common as it may be to make contrasts with this novel and as odd as comparisons are to make to this novel, there is one I am able to make. The comparison takes place in comparing the television series Dexter. Being aired on CBS and Showtime, Dexter works as a blood spatter pattern expert for the Miami police department. But by night he takes on the entirely different role as a serial killer. But as you might think, Dexter isn't your average serial killer. He will only kill people the fit a very specific "moral code" taught to him by his father Harry. This “moral code” is one in which he kills only people he believes to have escaped justice. In comparing Dexter’s story to Geek Love, you can wonder how Dexter has anything in common with a bunch of circus freaks. In fact, with my specific character, Olympia, the most harmless and caring of them all, how do she and Dexter tie together? In fact, I think that Olympia and Dexter are the closest of all of the other characters in Geek Love on terms of their thoughts. Dexter decides to kill people that he believes “have it coming for them”. In a weird way, you could say that Dexter “cares” too much, and decides to take things into his own hands in order to “make things right”. Dexter does not go out and kill people cold bloodedly for no reason. He goes out with a motive, that motive getting back at the people in which caused pain for others, and got away because the judicial system failed to make the right verdict.  You could argue in a sense that Dexter is a “hero” figure; he just takes a very aggressive and illegal approach in order to make sure that justice is served. Oly can also be viewed as a heroic figure in the novel Geek Love. She cares very much for her family, and doesn’t want anything wrong to go about in her presence. She a peacekeeper and she tries to single handedly holds down the fort as her family around her does some pretty questionable stuff. Oly has a more caring and legal approach than Dexter, but you can see that both of them, even though they also do some questionably legal, moral, and ethical, things, are heroic figures in their stories. I believe that Dexter and Oly share very similar traits, more so than do any of the other characters in Geek Love. As we continue to reach the end of the novel, we see Oly become more and more of this type of figure. I think she’ll continue to show traits of being a hero, and I also think that we’ll see her doing more for the good of others, and not for her own good.

Sinful Actions?

        What is the meaning of sin? For a dictionary definition, defined by Merriam Webster, sin is an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible.  In other words, sin is an action created by someone in which someone else, such as us, view as wrong. The word sin is thrown around a lot, mostly in cultures such as Christianity where there are specific “commandments” in which one should follow to avoid committing a sin. Katherine Dunn’s novel Geek Love plays around with the human norms on morals and ethics. From the beginning of Geek Love to the very end you can question the actions of several of the characters portrayed throughout the novel. Oly, the narrator in the novel is often pinned between a rock and a hard place when it comes to making the right decision for her siblings. A good example is when the twins turn 18 and want their own van. They move out, and almost immediately lose their virginity to a random man that Oly chooses. He pays them for the honor, which entices them. They make Oly promise not to tell anyone about their encounter. And after thinking it over, she decided not to revile their secret to anyone. She instead reveals to the twins that Arty has frequent relations with "norm" girls. The twins then set a high price for the people coming to sleep with them to make sure they only receive men who are highly interested in what they have to offer. They also have their piano teacher, Jonathan Tomaini, become their pimp. Obviously Oly was faced with the hardships of ratting out her sisters, or letting them continue onward. I think Oly decided to let them go on because if she were to revile what the siblings were practicing, it may have in the long run affected the similar acts that Arty was pursuing in. Sin plays a huge role in this chapter, and the morals of normal human beings cringe at the thought of 18 year old girls selling their bodies to complete strangers. Oly who could have put a stop to this horrible set of events, didn’t because she didn’t want to lose the relationship she hold with her brother Arty. Because of this I think that the usually innocent character Oly, shows a little bit of a monstrous side. By letting such a sin slip by with her siblings, I believe that she is showing a bit of a “non innocent” side of her very own character. We can say this because she wants to maintain her relationship with Arty, even if that means not intervening in something that she probably should have intervened with. Katherine Dunn’s novel Geek Love has proven to be a novel of interesting situations that unravel one by one at almost spontaneous times. I think this tactic keeps the reader involved and hungry to know more and more as the story continues on. It will be interesting to see if Oly has anymore “-monstrous” moments to come. 

Introduction to Oly

Geek Love, a novel written by Katherine Dunn, is an interesting story that follows the lives of the Binewskis and their family circus. The family consists of 5 children with very unique deformities in which their father purposely gave them by experimenting with numerous combinations of prescription drugs during his wife’s pregnancy. The child that this blog will take most interest in will be Olympia Binewskis, better known in the novel as Oly. Oly suffers from many deformities including dwarfism, albinism, as well as pertaining a hunched back. Because of these odd structures and genes she has inherited, she had been used in the families freak show for years and years on end. And it is from her point of view that the entire novel s told through. Being the narrator in Geek Love, we get to see everything that Oly sees. She explains everything through her eyes and how she perceives it. Because of this, the reader cannot help but ask, “Is everything that I read true? Or might it be an over exaggeration of what really happened?” Nonetheless, Oly is a complicated character throughout Katherine Dunn’s novel. She has a deep need to be loved and needed in her life. While the rest of her family members can base their value off a family circus act, Oly seems to only be worthy enough to be the shows announcer. She is not skilled enough to bring in the crowds and have her own act. This privilege falls to her other siblings, for they have developed weirder traits that bring in larger crowds and therefore more money for the family. Oly's main goal throughout her time at the family circus is to do whatever her brother Arty tells her to do. In a way, she becomes the first person of the family that Arty owns and fully committed to himself to. A common theme throughout the novel seems to be this continuous struggle for power over one another. It’s a continuous battle that Oly seems to not take much part in as her siblings do. Oly almost seems as if she sits back and watches it all unravel. She doesn’t take part, but she’ll do her part in trying her best to keep the family together, and to not allow them to separate from themselves. Oly, unlike some of her other siblings, appears to be monstrous from the outside by appearance. But once you get to know her personality, motivations, and drives, you learn that she really is a harmless person trying to make good of a bad family situation. With all forces seemly working against her, it’s amazing that she has been able to keep together what almost seems impossible to keep together. Throughout the novel so far, she has done a great job at being the “bigger” person and calming down her siblings and family members so that they don’t all murder each other. It will be interesting to follow Oly throughout the rest of the novel to see if she can keep it up!